NB. I really like the little profile chart that bikemap.net makes of your route. Also the topographic cycle map (OSM Cycle) with the various bike-paths and cycle-lanes mapped is awesome.

Runjikol, I removed the link you provided to your commute map because each time I opened it, it caused IE7 to crash. Can you please check the link and repost if it seems ok to you. Cheers mate.

Kev.

Link worked fine for me in Seamonkey 1.16 and IE6. The bikemap.net user interface is quite nice - and the OSM cycle pretty useful. It's got some of the main cycle routes in Sydney - although bits are missing in some - e.g. the eastern end of the Canal cycleway, and the link from the Orphan St Creek cycleway back to Lansdowne/Georges Hall and Milperra is not there.

The OSM cycle map's way of showing all the routes its got mapped in an area could be pretty handy too. But I Can't get too excited about topo maps with 50m contours.

Now here's the dilemma - you can't beat bikely.com for quantity of routes. Will the more appealing features of bikemap.net win out ?

Down Sandgate Rd for most of its length, then in through Eagle Junction and around Hudson Rd past the TAB building, through the iconic Breakfast Creek Hotel forecourt and into Fortitude Valley (where the fun begins - crap roads). Over the Storey Bridge and then either hammer it down Ipswich rd past the Gabba cricket ground or underneath the bridge and around the Kangaroo Point cliffs and up onto the bikeway alongside the South East Freeway, coming out at the Golden Casket building.

Done the ride from Thornleigh to Macquarie Park a few times, using Pennant Hills Rd, Beecroft Rd and then M2 - tends to scare the living s**t out of me! Tried the backroads alongside Beecroft but they're steep, narrow and filled with 4WDs piloted by school mums paying scant attention to the road. Plus, the ride back using the M2 detour is a pain in the behind.

Anyway, I am thinking of trying the route via Hornsby, Turramurra and Browns Hole cycleway. Question is, has anyone done the trip this way, and what's the track like? I'd prefer to ride it on my road bike, but worried the cycleway will rattle the girl to bits. I can ride the old hybrid, but I'm pretty sure Kissing Point Rd is a dog on the way home, and the old jigger is pretty heavy! The hill doesn't worry me - quite like climbing them ... on the Specialized, but not the 10 year old anchor.

Done the ride from Thornleigh to Macquarie Park a few times, using Pennant Hills Rd, Beecroft Rd and then M2 - tends to scare the living s**t out of me! Tried the backroads alongside Beecroft but they're steep, narrow and filled with 4WDs piloted by school mums paying scant attention to the road. Plus, the ride back using the M2 detour is a pain in the behind.

Anyway, I am thinking of trying the route via Hornsby, Turramurra and Browns Hole cycleway. Question is, has anyone done the trip this way, and what's the track like? I'd prefer to ride it on my road bike, but worried the cycleway will rattle the girl to bits. I can ride the old hybrid, but I'm pretty sure Kissing Point Rd is a dog on the way home, and the old jigger is pretty heavy! The hill doesn't worry me - quite like climbing them ... on the Specialized, but not the 10 year old anchor.

Any advice? (And, yes, buying a new commuter bike is an option!)

Cheers,

Simon

Didn't see your post until now, but I grew up around Beecroft/Pennant Hills and my parents live in Cheltenham. I know a safer route from Pennant Hills to Epping - after that I think I would follow the Epping Road cycleway if I was going to Macquarie Park.

The connection between Clement Close, Pennant Hills, and Tristania Way, Beecroft, is a set of concrete stairs. But carrying your bike up that is far safer than cycling on Pennant Hills Road and Beecroft Road.

The connection between Cheltenham Road, Cheltenham, to Kent Street, Epping, is a steep pathway down from Cheltenham Road, then a pedestrian footbridge over the M2 to Kent Street. It's by far the safest way to get from Cheltenham to Epping.

There are a couple of short bits on Beecroft Road, but you've got traffic lights in your favour both times.

Thanks for that. In fact, I tried your route a couple of times ... and it nearly damn killed me! (On an old hybrid and pretty unfit, mind you.) I should give it another go. In the meantime, I discovered the bike path between Kissing Pt Road and M2, so now I'm riding from Thornleigh to Waitara Station, then following the back roads next to railway down to Turramurra, where I flick across Pacific Hwy on to Kissing Pt Road. About 40 minutes going to work and around 55 minutes coming home, 33km for the return trip. A few steep hills, but that's the only way middle-aged blokes like me will ever get fit!

Couple of my regular routes, I drive ride being about 50k's out in the Sth East to variuous places about 20k's away anyway these are the two I probably do most, but sometimes for a change I will drive to clayton, caufield nunawading etc and try to navigate a route it is a bit of exploring and changes things around

Do you use the bike path along airport drive? I rode through there today thinking it may be a better route to work, but I wonder what it will be like on the way home in winter. Is there any lighting along the path?

My commute is Forestville to Rhodes (http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/Forestville-to-Rhodes). I drive in on Mon with the bike and clothes and ride home then ride back in on Tuesday and drive home. The same for Wed and Thurs. Friday I ride both ways. The trip takes me 90 minutes one-way (I'm not very fast).

It wasn't as bad as I thought honestly.. Dandalong was the worst.. but thats only becasue dandalong is a giant puss hole. Having said that.. it was 10am, traffic was fairly light.. I dont think I'd like to hammer down there with angry latte drinking audi's screaming up behind me. Hmmm

If anyone has ridden around that way into the city, any recomendations would be grouse

Actaully is there a bike track that follows the M1... that would be cool.

Rather than turn right at the roundabout at the end of Alfred St Nth Sydney, I continue left down the hill on High St to the lights and turn right along Clark Road and up to Milson's Point underpass from the Kiribilli side. Have you tried that option? Interested to know which way takes longer.

There's also cheat route off the zebra crossing that's not legal to ride running parallel to the freeway that I sometimes take (walk) when the traffic is angry.

trailgumby wrote: I continue left down the hill on High St to the lights and turn right along Clark Road and up to Milson's Point underpass

Yeah, I used to live in High St and used to walk along Clark Rd to Milson's Pt station and back and from my memory the hills there are quite steep. When I can, I prefer not to go downhill(eg. High St) so I have to climb another hill on the other side(eg. Clark Rd). And knowing that there is a traffic light at the end of High St stops me from exploring that option. And, once again, from my memory, Clark Rd is quite narrow and I woudn't want to hold up traffic behind me while I'm struggling up the hill.Having said that - I noticed that some hills that I used to think as hard to ride on when I was walking - are not hard at all, due to momentum - like Alfred St, for example. That was one scary hill and I hated walking there, but on a bike it's like a piece of cake. So I may explore Clark Rd option one day, since my 8km daily ride to work becomes a bit boring, and not challenging enough (exercise-wise).

As for which one is quicker - I often note the guys that go that direction and try to see if they got quicker to the bridge rump, and most of the time it's about the same. But then, I'm not the fastest rider, so don't know what to make out of it.

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